Weekend in Paris: Exploring Paris

Paris is a great city. That being said, while I like it, I can’t say I love it. Maybe it’s that everyone else seems to love it so much (along with Rome), while I just don’t find it quite as exciting as my favorite cities. It has everything you could ask for in a big city, though I just don’t connect with it in the same way I do with London, Vienna, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, just to name a few, even though I’ve visited a handful of times. With that in mind, I’ll keep this installment fairly short.

After breakfast at my hotel I met up with Matthew for a day of sightseeing. We met at my hotel and hit most of the “major” sights of Paris, of course while being distracted talking for most of the way.

We started by walking down the Champs Elysees, then towards the Opera, Madeleine, and then towards the Seine, past the Notre Dame and towards the Eiffel Tower. We stopped for lunch at a fairly empty cafe where I had a tomato and mozzarella salad (with excellent French bread, of course).

After several hours of walking he had another commitment, so I decided to walk towards Gare du Nord, as I was spending the night at the Hyatt Regency Charles de Gaulle Airport, given my early morning flight the next day. I ended up getting lost for literally several hours, so managed to do quite a bit of unintentional sightseeing in the area.

Anyway, in hopes of finally wrapping up this trip report, I’ll let the pictures below do most of the talking.

Check out my weekly column over at TravelSort.com. This week I share how my strategy is changing when it comes to credit card spend due to the recent devaluations among American Express Membership Rewards’ transfer partners.

This actually made my day. When I write trip reports I’ll occasionally mention exemplary employees by name. Anyway, I got a Facebook message from someone just this morning who I had mentioned by name in a review of an international luxury hotel…

More from One Mile at a Time

We've talked before about many of the items we consider essential for travel, be it gadgets and technology, or just having the proper combination of bags. But I thought it might be fun to share a few of the decidedly-random yet super-useful things I…

Given my crazy travel schedule, I have really bad sleeping habits. Based on the fact that I typically like to be online during east coast hours and am a morning person, my ideal timezone is Pacific Time. Left to my own devices I'd ideally go to bed every…

Hello from Beijing! Tiffany and I just flew Delta's new A350 business class (which they refer to as "Delta One Suites") on the 13 hour flight from Detroit. I couldn't wait to experience this new business class, and in particular to see how it compared…

My connection in Doha was about three hours, so I spent that time at Qatar Airways' Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge. I've reviewed that lounge before and spent most of my layover catching up on work, so won't be reviewing the lounge this time around.…

My last trip report finished off with a TAP Air Portugal flight from Lisbon to Newark. That same day I flew from from New York JFK to Doha. I made my way to JFK, and then spent some time in the Flagship Lounge (or more specifically, the Flagship Bridge)…

Upgrades are never a sure thing, though I do everything I can to maximize my upgrade odds. I'm happy to fly economy if I have to, though if I can reasonably avoid it, why not? On routes where an upgrade is generally easy, I'll usually chance it. On routes…

About luckyBen Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector.
He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences.
He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

Comments

Thanks for the pictures Lucky. The sixth one of Eglise St Augustin brought a smile to my face. It was our landmark in the city as our apartment was only two blocks down Malesherbes from it.

As to your feel of not loving the city I can understand it. Paris, more than any other city I’ve been to, seems to have two faces. There is the face she shows to the casual tourist and the face she shows to the resident. I was blessed to see both sides and while I have other cities I love more for one reason or another I find myself drawn back to Paris.

I’ve only visited Paris once, and while I agree it’s a great city, I also didn’t connect with it as much… I went in November, so even though it was ostensibly the off season, it still felt really crowded and I was harassed by scam artists at pretty much every turn.

Paris is a bit like like New York, it’s a great place to live but i would want to visit there. Ok, slight exaggeration. But for me the pleasures of Paris reveal themselves through both preparation and serendipity: stumbling across an exquisite view or piece of history, the fantastic out-of-the-way restaurant that doesn’t break the budget, the charming cafe in a residential neighborhood. The major sights are certainly worth seeing but the soul of Paris lies elsewhere.

Also, it’s not an immediately friendly place, so it helps to have a connection, as well as a bit of French under your belt.

Why did you stay out by the airport? The RER B starts running very early in the morning- 5 am or so, I think. You could have stayed near Gare du Nord and probably gotten out to CDG in the same amount of time- it’s a 30 minute train ride.

I think that in order to enjoy Paris you have to take it easy; stay in the same hotel more than one night; not just walk around but actually enjoy and savor it.
I can totally see you enjoying Tokyo which is wild and busy.
I think Vienna plays to your germanic heritage and since you speak German, you would certainly enjoy it more.
Not sure though how you can like London more than Paris.

Love Paris and Paris will love you. Don’t love it, and it’s nothing more than a big, sometimes beautiful museum full of top attractions. Then you will only look at Paris, but never touch of feel what Paris really is about. First tip: dare to explore and wander of the beaten tourist track.

Recent Trip Reports

My connection in Doha was about three hours, so I spent that time at Qatar Airways' Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge. I've reviewed that lounge before and spent most of my layover catching up on work, so won't be reviewing the lounge this time around.…

My last trip report finished off with a TAP Air Portugal flight from Lisbon to Newark. That same day I flew from from New York JFK to Doha. I made my way to JFK, and then spent some time in the Flagship Lounge (or more specifically, the Flagship Bridge)…

Welcome to my next trip report, primarily covering travel on Qatar Airways, in particular in their new Qsuites business class. In 2017 we saw five exciting new premium cabin products introduced -- Emirates' new first class, Qatar's new business class,…

Originally our plan was to just spend five nights at the W Verbier and then go to London for a few nights before returning to the US. Given how beautiful the Alps are, I thought it might be nice to visit somewhere else in Switzerland, especially since…

Recent Posts

Hello from Hong Kong! Tiffany and I are traveling around Asia for a week. We were supposed to go to Australia, but for a variety of reasons decided against it (the primary reason being that we would have been in Australia for all of a day -- oops). We've…

In early 2015 I wrote a tutorial on how to select seats on Etihad when booking through other airlines (like when redeeming American AAdvantage miles for travel on Etihad). While Etihad will allow you to select seats on their website if you booked your…

USA Today has the story of a New York state employee who has been placed on leave after name-dropping the governor as she had a meltdown on a Delta flight earlier this month. This incident was captured on video and posted to Facebook, and has over 1.5…

The CardMatch Tool, which is offered by creditcards.com, often gives people access to bigger targeted card sign-up bonuses. In order to use the tool you have to enter your name, address, and last four of your social security number, and based on that,…

Seeking: Savvy Miles & Points Enthusiast To Write For OMAAT

We have some amazing friends who have contributed to the blog over the years, and have learned a great deal during that time. Our ideas on what works, what doesn't, and the best ways to supplement what Ben is already writing have evolved, and we've tried…

Meet The Team

One Mile at a Time is owned by PointsPros, Inc. This site is for entertainment purposes only. The owner of this site is not an investment advisor, financial planner, nor legal or tax professional and articles here are of an opinion and general nature and should not be relied upon for individual circumstances.

Advertiser Disclosure: Some links to credit cards and other products on this website will earn an affiliate commission. Outside of banner ads published through the Boarding Area network, this compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site. While we do try to list all the best miles and points deals, the site does not include all card companies or credit card offers available in the marketplace. Please view our advertising policy page for additional details about our partners.

Editorial Disclosure: The editorial content on this page is not provided by any entity mentioned herein. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.